Late night talk radio innovator Art Bell has died at the age of 72. He passed away in his sleep, at home in Pahrump, Nevada on Friday, April 13. For the night owls, insomniacs, late-shift and early-morning workers, Bell was a comforting voice crackling through the AM airwaves on his shows “Coast to Coast AM” […]
When Art Bell announced his return to daily broadcasting last spring the plan was to be internet-only, with just one shortwave station picking up the online feed. By the time his new show, “Midnight in the Desert,” launched in July he’d signed up about 23 terrestrial broadcast stations, indicating some definite pent-up demand. This week […]
Monday night at midnight Eastern Time is the much anticipated return of Art Bell. Though originally planned to be an online-only show on the Dark Matter network, 21 AM and FM stations and two shortwave stations have now picked it up. Most of the stations are outside major markets, with the exception of affiliates in […]
Last month I told you about nocturnal radio king Art Bell’s scheduled return to broadcasting. At first it looked like his show, Midnight in the Desert, would be internet-only, save a single shortwave broadcast. But now 17 AM and FM stations have signed on as affiliates. Another shortwave station, the infamous WBCQ, will also broadcast […]
Talk radio veteran Darryl Parks is a harsh critic of how the format continues to lose touch with most of the radio audience who aren’t white male baby boomers. In a new post this week he takes aim at Rush Limbaugh, describing the leading conservative talk host’s “fall into oblivion.” Parks notes that Limbaugh’s program […]
Darryl Parks is the former corporate brand manager for Clear Channel talk stations and was program director for Cincinnati news/talk WLW-AM. Now independent, Parks keeps a blog where he recently has trained his sights on his old business. A couple of weeks ago he dissected the plummeting ratings across the mostly-conservative AM talk radio format. […]
If you are a politics junkie, India is the country for you. Right now 814.5 million Indian voters are qualified to cast ballots in the impending elections for India’s 543 member lower house and the country’s president. They can choose from 50 regional parties and two national parties. Ten million polling officials and security people […]
Clear Channel has discovered the podcast, apparently, but wants to rename it the “audiosode.” Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? But don’t be fooled by the nincompoop neologism, this is a very serious move by the nation’s biggest radio broadcast company to dominate internet radio. Those “audiosodes” are part of the iHeartRadio Talk beta that […]
And here’s an alternate viewpoint on AM talk radio, compared to the earlier xkcd post. It’s from 20 years ago, before consolidation and Clear Channel. Orson Welles promotes New York’s WABC talk radio:
The often brilliant xkcd takes on talk radio (I’m the one suggesting it’s conservative talk radio):
